Global smartphone sales inch up 4.3% in Q2: Gartner

Global smartphonesales grew 4.3% to 344 million units in April-June of 2016 over the same period last year, affected by slowing demand in mature markets and decline in feature phone segment, research firm Gartner today said.

"Demand for premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers wait for new hardware launches in the second half of the year," Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta said.

In addition, the decline in sales of feature phones (down 14%) pulled down the overall sales of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2016, he added.

Samsung led the tally with 22.3% share, followed by Apple (12.9%), Huawei (8.9%), Oppo (5.4%) and Xiaomi (4.5%) in the said quarter.

All mature markets, except Japan, saw slackening demand for smartphones leading to 4.9% decline in the segment, Gartner said.